Shelley and I trek around the US, then head to ancient China to unify the provinces. I Kickstarted Trekking the National Parks, and I'm glad to have this on the shelf for the nephews and non-gamers. ZhanGuo is a LOT heavier, but clear once you get your mind wrapped around it.

Trekking the National Parks by Charlie Bink (go to www.trektheparks.com)

and

ZhanGuo by Marco Canetta and Stefania Niccolini from What's Your Game

Quick walk around of The Gathering 2006 back up on the feed. This is probably my shortest episode ever, but it's nice to get the voices on the feed again.

The Gathering as always been a "must attend" event and Shelley and I were lucky enough to attend for a number of years (hopefully we'll go back) before it moved to Niagra and our schedules with school didn't align well.

Enjoy our reflections on Ticket to Ride Marklin, etc.

On the feed once again, Greg Parker joins me for 4 games

Fettnapf

Havoc

Roma

Anno 1503

Do you want to go to Essen and buy games? Do you want to sell your amazing creation to dedicated gamers? Now you can in these two titles, BOTH called Essen.

Essen by Harry-Pekka Kuusela from LudiCreations

and

Essen The Game: Spiel '13 by Fabrice Beghin, Frederic Delporte and Etienne Espreman from Geek Attitude Games

Shelley and I get the new Stefan Feld release and Ed Marriott's first design to the table, both published here in the US by Tasty Minstrel Games.

Aquasphere by Stefan Feld

Scoville by Ed Marriott

One more solo show, and this time I talk a bit about the original board gaming podcast - Geekspeak/BoardgameSpeak - and two titles with tile laying as an important mechanism.

San Francisco

Downfall of Pompeii

A solo show once again (what was I thinking? I'm OK on my own, but Shelley adds a perfect counter balance). This time it's Schacht, Teuber, and Kramer. BTW, I still have Web of Power and China on the shelf, as well as Anno 1503, but Hacienda went away a LONG time ago.

Shelley joins me for the second time on the podcast for a discussion of some of our favorite (at the time) 2-player games.

Odin's Ravens

Balloon Cup

Vom Kap Bis Kairo

Die Fugger

Shelley and I get three small-box imports to the table this week, and this episode should be titled "Games you should hunt down or twist the arm of a domestic publisher to get published" The games (two from Japon Brand and one from Hobby World) are

Kaleido by Hinata Origuchi

Colors of Kasane by Hinata Origuchi

and

Moscow to Paris by Evgeny Nikitin

Enjoy!

Shelley hadn't joined me on the mic full time at this point, so I go through some gaming history and discuss my then-current Top 10.

Part 2 of Episode 4 (not sure why I did this) has Greg Parker join in once again for a discussion of teaching games and game groups.

Greg Parker joins me for a discussion of his gaming history and some of our games played in this first part of Episode 4 from 9 years ago.

Shelley and I get to a few games that just didn't work for us. They may be more to your likeing (and I'd love to hear your opinions on the Guild at BGG), but we found them problematic at best.

Jager and Spaher by Gerhard Hecht from KOSMOS

Orongo by Reiner Knizia from Ravensburger

Gold Ahoy! by Stephan Herminghaus from Mayfair/Lookout

Dragonscroll by Gordon and Fraser Lamont from Fragor Games

After two solo efforts, I realized that having a partner on the microphones would work better, and the best partner on mic would be my partner in life. Find out more about Shelley's gaming past.

Another OLD episode back on the feed. Since I play games with teens and non-gamers often, here was my take (nine years ago) on bringing those groups into the fold.

With the new feed that we started last summer, it's time to get all of the episodes in one place. I'll be putting up all of the missing episode (1-229) on the feed over the next few months. Here's where we started about NINE YEARS AGO. BTW, I still HAVE Kreta and Hey That's My Fish...the others have find new homes.

This week's episode is all about three 2-player games (though 1 expands to up to 5 players!).

Jushimatsu by Madoka Kitao (expands to 5 with 2 sets and the Egg Expansion)

Nanahoshi by Hiroki Kaneko and Madoka Kitao

Onitama by Simpei Sato

Enjoy!

Shelley and I spent some time over the summer trying to make sure we got some older titles off the shelves and onto the table. This episode is our reflection on some of those titles that might be worth hunting down with your Christmas loot!

Han by Michael Schacht from Abacusspiele

Das Letzte Kamel by Tom Schoeps from FX Schmid

Palermo by Walter Ziser from Piatnik

Der Goldene Kompass by Inka and Markus Brand from Kosmos

Himalaya/Lords of Xidit by Regis Bonnessee from Tilsit/Libellud

Marracash by Stefan Dorra from Kosmos

Punk Sucht Lady by Kramer and Ulruch from Ravensburger

Rococo by Matthias Cramer, Louis and Stefan Malz from Eggertspiele

Shelley and I get three newer (though not Essen) titles to the table this episode. Actually we recorded this back in September, but this is a perfect time with the holiday crush to get this one out to you. All of these would make solid last-minute holiday presents.

Elevenses by David Harding from Adventureland Games (this was a Kickstarter)

Nehemiah by Lukasz Wozniak from Gry Leonardo

Star Realms by Robert Dougherty and Darwin Kastle from ADC Blackfire Entertainment

Enjoy!